Portland's Backyard Winery Doing Its Own Thing
Southeast Portland · Portland · Wine Bar · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · April 15, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Enso Winery’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
Walking into Enso feels less like a tasting room and more like stumbling into a neighbor's garage — if that neighbor happened to be making genuinely interesting wine and didn't care what anyone thought about it. The list is short, but it's theirs: built around small-batch, house-made bottles you won't find anywhere else in the city. That alone earns some respect.
Enso leans hard into Oregon-grown weirdness, which is exactly what you want from an urban winery on SE Stark. The lineup pulls in Counoise and Mourvèdre — grapes that most Portland drinkers couldn't pick out of a lineup — alongside more familiar Malbec and Riesling. Their house blends, like the Chateauneuf du Stark, are the real draw: irreverent names, serious sourcing intent, and the kind of low-production numbers that mean they're gone when they're gone. The Portland Sangria is either a trap for tourists or a genuinely fun crowd move depending on the season — we'd argue it's both.
By-the-glass specifics aren't plastered everywhere, but this is a tasting room at heart — expect pours of whatever's open and available that day. The rotating nature of a small producer means your options shift with the vintage, which keeps things interesting but requires you to ask rather than assume. Staff can walk you through what's pouring.
Chateauneuf du Stark — null
A house red blend with an absurd name and a genuinely Rhône-inflected personality — Counoise, Mourvèdre, and probably a few other things they felt like throwing in. For a Portland-made bottle at urban winery pricing, it punches well above its weight.
Counoise
Most people skip right past it because they've never heard of it. Counoise is a southern French grape that produces lighter, peppery, high-acid reds — closer to a Cru Beaujolais than a Cab. At a place like Enso it's practically a dare, and you should take it.
Portland Sangria
We get it, it's fun. But sangria at a winery that's making actual Mourvèdre is a bit like ordering a hot dog at a steakhouse. Try literally anything else on the list first.
Mourvèdre + Charcuterie board
Mourvèdre and cured meats are a classic southern French move for a reason — the wine's dark fruit and earthy edge cuts through fat without blinking. If Enso has snacks on the bar (and most tasting rooms do), this is the call.
The Bottom Line
Enso is the Wild Card badge incarnate: a working urban winery making obscure grapes in a Southeast Portland neighborhood and charging fair prices for the privilege of watching them figure it out in real time. If you want a predictable Pinot Noir experience, go somewhere else — if you want something actually Portland, pull up a stool.
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